The official launch of C21 Canada introduces a dynamic new force in Canadian education. Canadians for 21st Century Learning and Innovation (C21 Canada) is a nonprofit organization calling for changes in public education on behalf of students, parents and Canadians in general. We are a unique blend of education organizations and private sector companies with the shared goal of witnessing an accelerated pace of 21st Century competencies, instructional practices and digital resources and services being integrated into Canada’s learning systems. Our call for change is rooted in international research that clearly shows that today’s youth, the digital generation, need different competencies than those of the industrial era. Canadians know the world has changed, and yet Canada’s learning systems have failed to keep pace. Highly literate, creative and innovative people are now the drivers of the high skills, knowledge and innovation based economy and are needed to address increasingly complex social, economic and environmental challenges.
The need for change is urgent. Surveys undertaken by the Canadian Education Association are showing students disengaging from their learning at record levels. We must transform public education to be more relevant to students and provide them with teachers skilled in 21st Century instructional practices and learning environments designed for personalized learning and equipped with the ICT tools of their generation.
A year ago 21st Century Learning Associates and MindShare Learning joined forces and approached the organizations that are now the founding members of C21 Canada. On February 15th 50 of Canada’s leaders in the world of 21st Century learning gathered to help C21 Canada create Shifting Minds, a 21st Century learning framework to share with Canadians. We believe that if Canadian parents realized their children were not receiving the education they will need to be successful in the future, they would be demand change. C21 Canada plans to make Canadians aware of this reality and showcase those educators, and systems that are already leading the way forward.
Visit our new website at www.C21Canada.org to learn more about our organization and help us strengthen our Shifting Minds position statement on 21st Century learning. We need your help to ensure our youth receive an education designed for their future, not our past. Join us in our quest to give our youth the learning opportunities they both deserve and need.
[…] will be presenting a series of blogs that introduce the key elements of Shifting Minds. Our first blog focused on the nature of 21st Century models of learning and the principles that underlie Shifting […]